The New England Journal of Medicine
e-mail icon  FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |    Advanced Search
Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe
 
Original Article
PreviousPrevious
Volume 338:493-498 February 19, 1998 Number 8
NextNext

Antenatal Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone to Prevent Lung Disease in Preterm Infants
Roberta A. Ballard, M.D., Philip L. Ballard, M.D., Ph.D., Avital Cnaan, Ph.D., Jennifer Pinto-Martin, Ph.D., Deborah J. Davis, M.D., James F. Padbury, M.D., Roderic H. Phibbs, M.D., Julian T. Parer, M.D., Ph.D., Montgomery C. Hart, M.D., Frank L. Mannino, M.D., Shirley K. Sawai, M.D., for The North American Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone Study Group

 Sign up for free e-toc
 

This Article
-Full Text
- PDF

Tools and Services
-Add to Personal Archive
-Add to Citation Manager
-Notify a Friend
-E-mail When Cited

More Information
-PubMed Citation
ABSTRACT

Background Pulmonary disease is common in preterm infants, despite antenatal glucocorticoid therapy. The addition of antenatal thyrotropin-releasing hormone therapy has been reported to decrease pulmonary morbidity in these infants.

Methods We enrolled 996 women at 13 North American centers who were in preterm labor at <30 weeks' gestation in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial of antenatal thyrotropin-releasing hormone, given intravenously in four doses of 400 µg each at eight-hour intervals. The primary outcome was chronic lung disease or death of the infant on or before the 28th day after delivery, and secondary outcomes were respiratory distress syndrome and chronic lung disease or death at 36 weeks' postmenstrual age. Complete data were available for 981 women and their 1134 live-born infants. The 769 infants born at <32 weeks' gestation were defined as the group at risk.

Results There were no significant differences between the at-risk treatment and placebo groups in mean (±SD) birth weight (1109±354 vs. 1097±355 g), gestational age (27.9±2.1 vs. 27.9±2.1 weeks), sex, or race. The frequencies of respiratory distress syndrome (66 percent vs. 65 percent), death at 28 days (11 percent vs. 11 percent), chronic lung disease or death at 28 days (45 percent vs. 42 percent) and at 36 weeks (32 percent vs. 34 percent), and other neonatal complications as well as the severity of lung disease were not significantly different in the at-risk treatment and placebo groups. Similarly, there were no differences in outcome between the treatment and placebo groups for the infants born at >32 weeks' gestation.

Conclusions In preterm infants at risk for lung disease, antenatal administration of thyrotropin-releasing hormone and glucocorticoid is no more beneficial than glucocorticoid alone.


Source Information

From the Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (R.A.B., P.L.B., A.C.) and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (J.P.-M.), Philadelphia; Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, Ont., Canada (D.J.D); Harbor–UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, Calif. (J.F.P.); University of California, San Francisco (R.H.P., J.T.P.); St. Joseph's Hospital, Phoenix, Ariz. (M.C.H.); University of California, San Diego (F.L.M.); and Good Samaritan Hospital, Phoenix, Ariz. (S.K.S.).

Address reprint requests to Dr. Roberta A. Ballard at the Division of Neonatology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 34th St. and Civic Center Blvd., Philadelphia, PA 19104.

Full Text of this Article


This article has been cited by other articles:



HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  TERMS OF USE  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org

Comments and questions? Please contact us.

The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2009 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.